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Part Seven
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From the moment they stepped into Caritas, Angel only had one thing on his mind – if the Host touched Lindsey again, he would regret it, dearly.

The green demon had first greeted the lawyer with a hug that included running his hand up and down Lindsey’s firm back, and then he wrapped his arms around Lindsey’s shoulder as he led them to a table. Not to mention the constant pet names and flirting glances as the Host squeezed himself in next to Lindsey and was, in Angel's opinion, pestering him for a song.

"He’s not singing tonight, I am," Angel snapped and turned his face to the opposite direction when Cordelia gave him a questioning look.

Shrugging off the confusion, Cordelia grumbled, "I was dreading that this would happen."

Ever since Angel’s position had changed from boss to employee, the rest of the gang had been more open about what they thought of his singing. She knew Angel was a little angry at their opinions, but she didn’t think he would be acting like this. Then again, Angel had been behaving strange lately, especially this morning. ‘Maybe it’s vampire PMS,’ she mused with a smirk.

The sudden tension was broken when the waiter approached, Angel had given the young man a strained but polite ‘no, thank you’ while Cordelia ordered her drink.

The Host simply said ‘the usual’ for Lindsey, which drove Angel’s frustration to a new height. He could almost hear his teeth grinding as he told himself to calm down.

"Angelcakes, relax!" Lorne laughed as he stood up and mentioned for Angel to follow him.

The vampire was puzzled, but complied nonetheless. "What?" he barked as they slid into a corner booth. The smug grin on Lorne’s face was not helping his mood much.

"Hum," the Host simply replied.

It took a moment for the meaning of that single word in register in his mind, bewilderment followed. "Shouldn’t I be singing?" He eyed the stage, where a demon with four horns and purple fur were bellowing out the lyrics.

"Do you really want to sing on stage?" Lorne smiled when he saw Angel shake his head, "Now hum."

After muttering a frustrated ‘fine’, Angel did as he was told.

"Well?" he asked when he was finished with his little tune, sounding clearly irritated.

"You are so much better at humming! Ever think about going into the harmonizing business?"

"No." Angel glared.

"Fine, fine. Some people have no sense of humor." The Host mumbled then turned serious. "I can’t help you on the Glory subject, since I’ve never heard of her, but..." He paused dramatically and waved at Lindsey, who returned the gesture with a bright smile and Angel had a sudden urge to punch the shameless demon in the face.

"Spit it out!" Angel shifted in his seat, hoping to block Lindsey from The Host’s sight, and tightened his hands into fists to stop any violence they might produce, not that he wouldn’t be happy to do it.

"We really need to talk about that jealousy issue!"

"What jealousy issue? You mean, me and him?" He pointed to Lindsey’s direction, who was taking a sip of a light blue drink and chatting with Cordelia.

Angel’s jaw hit the table when the Host nodded in affirmative.

"You are not as dense as I thought you were." Lorne looked contemplative. "Who are you and what did you do to the real Angel?"

"There’s nothing, absolutely nothing between me and Lindsey McDonald." The last comment completely flew over Angel's head since he was so focused on denying the first one. Feeling the need to stress his point further, he added, "Nothing!"

"Right, and I’m nominated for a Grammy," The Host looked thoughtful for a moment, "actually, it is possible. Maybe if I joined a band and told the press the skin and horns are just costume. What do you think?" He looked up hopefully with a sparkle of amusement in his red eyes when Angel almost went over the edge at his off-topic comment.

"That you are insane!" he roared, not caring if he was drawing any attention.

"We all are, darling."

"There’s nothing, I repeat, nothing, between me and him."

"I heard you the first time, hon."

"Good, because there is nothing between me and him."

"Listen, I’m just telling you what I sense, and right now I’m sensing a whole lot of jealousy in your aura, and anger..." the Host closed his eyes, feigning pain, "toward me."

"What?" Angel was thankful for the fact that he was dead, because blushing was not something he wanted to be doing at this moment. "You’re wrong."

"Denial." Lorne smirked.

"I'm not in denial!"

"Of course you're not. You're in L.A., not Egypt."

"Huh?"

"You really aren't the brightest vampire out there, are you?"

"Hey!" Angel cried out in protest, as he was now the focus of many sympathetic looks.

"Anyway, we need to talking about what happened last night." The Host swiftly changed the subject, not caring if it were obvious.

"Nothing happened." The reply came too quickly.

"It’s gotta be something if it’s the only thing on your mind. It’s even worse than your Darla-obsession, which I am glad to see has passed."

"Last night was nothing, just something I want to forget," Angel muttered. He needed to forget the heat surrounded him with he was inside Lindsey and the tingly sensation the lawyer had been able to put in the pit of his stomach. After all, it was only a one-time thing, right?

"Sometimes the things we want to forget are the things which we most need to talk about," Lorne said, amused that Angel was fidgeting with nervousness.

"I kinda...Lindsey" The middle part of the sentence was mumbled.

"Okay, and what’s the...?" The Host imitated the unintelligible sound Angel had formed earlier.

"I made lo... I meant, I slept with him." He bit his tongue for the slip-up.

"Right..." Lorne replied with heavy sarcasm. "Here’s a little something: when a love dies, it’s remembered, but another love will find you again and need you the most. It's all a big cycle, Angelcakes."

"What’s that suppose to mean?"

"You’ll figure it out soon enough, and as for Glory, the person you love holds all you need to know."

"I thought you said you don’t know a thing about Glory."

"Exactly, I said ‘I’ don’t." Lorne grinned as he got up from his seat and headed back to the table.

Shaking his head in exasperation, Angel returned to his friends.

=======

As soon as Angel left with the Host, uneasiness and tension fell over the remaining two people.

"So..." Cordelia started, stealing a glance at the silent attorney.

They had been quiet after ordering their drinks and making small talk. She couldn’t stand silence, because to her, silence equaled bad and from her experience at Sunnydale, she had plenty serious events to back that theory up.

"So?" Lindsey replied, raising his glass and bringing it to his mouth. He swallowed the dry lump in his throat along with his drink; he could sense how uncomfortable Cordelia was. "How are the vision hangovers?"

"Worse, but..." she trailed off, "How did you know about that?"

"I..."

"Never mind, Wolfram and Hart."

"Yeah... you were saying?" Lindsey gestured with his hand to tell her to finish whatever she was going to say before Wolfram and Hart was brought up.

"But I’ll live," she simply said, and the carelessness on her face worried the lawyer. As if sensing his concern, she added, "There’s nothing you can do about it anyway."

"Yeah..." Feeling the need to change to a more comfortable subject, he asked, "Is Angel going to sing?"

"God, I hope not!" She cleared her throat in embarrassment for her outburst, "I meant, we can’t afford to lose any more time. Innocents need to be saved!"

Lindsey just stared at Cordelia in amusement and watched her turned to a dark shade of crimson. "I agree."

"So, are you gonna sing?"

"Don’t think so, like you said, innocents waiting to be rescued!" Lindsey did a pretty good impression of her.

"Ha ha! Very not funny," she picked up her glass and took a small sip.

"Sorry," Lindsey blurted out then kicked himself when Cordelia nearly spit out her drink.

"Don’t worry about it! I was just kidding."

"I meant sorry for what I did in the past."

Of all things Lindsey would have said, that was not on Cordelia’s list, especially after the conversation they had. She let her mouth fell open in a very unladylike fashion and sputtered, "Excuse me?"

"You know, the whole ‘drive you insane’ thing."

"Oh that," Cordelia winced as she remembered the torturous pain, "you already apologized this morning." She tried to act indifferent to the man next to her, she had already forgiven him, but it was hard for her to say it.

"But you never told me how you felt about it." Even though he wasn’t an attorney anymore, Lindsey still had his interrogating skills.

"Listen," Cordelia locked gaze with him, wanting to make her point clear, "I do not appreciate what you did to me, or to Wesley, and definitely not to Angel. But it’s also what you did that made me forgive you."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, I realized that there are innocent people in pain all over the world, and as much as I hate to admit it then, you are one of them. Everyone deserves a second chance at redemption and everyone’s soul is worth saving."

Lindsey could tell that Cordelia had spent a lot of time thinking about their new situation, and he was glad that she was able to forgive him for all the horrible things he’d done. She really was a different person than the one he had seen on one of the screens in Russell Winter’s home.

"Thanks," he whispered, "I probably don’t deserve it, but thanks again."

"Hello? Are you deaf?" Cordelia made a movement with her hand that substitute for ‘duh!’ "I just said everyone deserves a second chance."

"But I kinda screwed up my second..." Lindsey looked down shamefully, "and third."

"Well, then we’ll just have to make it harder for you." Lindsey missed the mischievous gleam in her eyes since his was cast to the table. "Shopping!"

His head snapped up in surprise so abruptly that Lindsey was sure he had damaged his neck. "What?"

"Take me shopping and all will be forgotten! Maybe not all, but some will be."

"Deal." A grin spilt across Lindsey's face as he clanged glasses with Cordelia.

"Deal for what?" Angel’s sudden appearance made Lindsey choke on his drink.

"You okay? Honey?" Lorne soothed as he patted Lindsey on the back, but stopped when he felt Angel’s icy glare digging into his back like daggers.

"I’ll be fine, just gimme a minute." Lindsey coughed a few times before he could speak again. "How did it go?" His voice was slightly raspy.

"Oh, the usual. He bullied me," the Host replied in a joking tone.

"And he gave me some abstract answers," Angel shrugged good-humoredly. "Let’s go, we’ve got work to do."

Angel was halfway to the door when the Host called out, "One more thing, Angelcakes, I’m very happy with David." He nodded toward the bartender.

"What?" Cordelia asked that as her former boss dragged her out the door. A very bewildered Lindsey followed.

"Would you stop acting like a jealous husband already?" She complained as she got into the passenger seat while Lindsey jumped in the back and Angel took the wheels.

"What?" Angel asked.

"You’ve been acting like a jealous husband ever since we entered Caritas! What are you jealous about anyway? Lindsey and the Host?" Cordelia laughed at the absurdity of her words.

The two men both tensed at the comment; Angel glanced quickly at Lindsey then focused back on the road while Lindsey maintained a steady gaze on Angel.

"That’s ridiculous!" Angel replied, carefully not letting his own emotions seep into his words. He wasn’t jealous, and he had no reason to be. "Ridiculous," he repeated under his breath.

"Yeah, ridiculous." Lindsey said, but he couldn’t help but feeling a slight hint of disappointment and hurt at the vampire’s casualness on the topic.

Cordelia studied the two men in interest; something was definitely going on between them. And she would find out what it was if it was the last thing she did.

They rode back to the Hyperion in silence; each lost in their own thoughts.

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"Anything?" Gunn asked with a sigh as he carelessly slid another one of Wesley’s books across the table to the other end.

"Afraid not, you?" He replied, keeping his eyes on the page before him while jotting down translations onto his notepad.

"Nothing, and Cordy’s picture isn’t all that helpful. Wait, I think I’m onto something."

"Perfect," Wesley mumbled as he copied another sentence down.

"What?"

"Oh, I was talking to myself," Wesley glanced up apologetically, then returned his gaze back to the text before him. "I’m worried about Cordelia, the hangovers are getting stronger and stronger. I’m not sure how much more her body can take."

"Yeah... I hear you on that. Maybe she needs to relax, you know?"

"It's a little hard to relax in a situation like this."

"Agree." Gunn opened another book.

"Agree to what?" They both jumped at the sound of Cordelia's voice.

"Agree that this is the item in your vision." Wesley recovered nicely; they both knew how Cordelia didn't like talking about the vision hangovers. They knew she didn't want to worry them, but the less she talked about it, the more they worry.

"Where is it?" She asked as she set down her purse.

Gunn pointed to the opened book on the desk as Lindsey, Angel and Cordelia crowded around.

"That’s it." She the read the passage aloud, "The mark of Kaeirk, a demon who feeds on lies, discord and violence. In return, it would grant its followers power, wealth, protection and wit. It can only be killed when it is in mortal form."

"How does it get into a human form?" Lindsey inquired, and was glad when they didn’t seem uncomfortable that he was acting like a part of the team.

"From its followers, who would have to perform a ritual to obtain a part of Kaeirk into themselves and Kaeirk can use their bodies as a host or as a mean of transportation, thus becomes the key link to Kaeirk. The followers would have to form minions from their own blood, once it is done; there would be no way to reverse it. If the link dies, so do the ones who he cast the spell upon."

"Sounds complicated," Angel said, earning an odd look from his friends for his comment. "What? It is!"

"I agree, but we have a bigger worry right now – Glory," Wesley frowned at the mention of the Hellgod's name.

"Hey, the PTB sent me a vision about this Kaeirk demon, so I think it should be our priority!" Cordelia protested as she placed herself carefully on the edge of her desk.

"If the world ends, we won’t have to worry about Kaeirk, and it is ending soon. We are running out of time." Wesley explained as he eyed the clock. "We have about two and half hours."

"Shit!" Gunn muttered.

"Shit is correct." Lindsey said under his breath.

"Wesley, what did Giles tell you?" Angel asked.

"She's a hellgod who was banished from her world, and the only way to get back is to open a portal that will eventually blend all different dimensions into one. To open it, she’ll need the key, who happens to be Dawn."

"Dawn is not a key, she’s a person! I’ve known her since I met Buffy!" Cordelia objected.

"I’ll fill you in later." Angel replied.

After Cordelia reluctantly nodded, Wesley continued, "And they found out that as long as Dawn’s blood flows, the portal remains open, so it’s only way to stop Glory is to protect Dawn, or to..." He stopped, knowing some words would be understood without being spoken.

"Can we kill her?" Lindsey suggested. "I meant Glory," he added when Gunn cast him a dirty look.

"Only in her human form, she is a prisoner in a human’s body," Wesley then explained the situation with Ben and Glory.

"What is it with all demons being human?" Cordelia muttered in frustration as she rubbed her temples.

"What does the prophecies of Aberjian say about this?" Angel nodded to the spread out scrolls on the far desk.

"I could only translate bits and pieces, my books aren’t all that equipped I’m afraid."

"What you need is a more detailed library," Lindsey mused, "like Wolfram and Hart."

"Great idea, but can we talk about something that’s actually doable?" Cordelia retorted.

"It is, as soon as I go upstairs and grab my suitcase." Lindsey smiled at the shocked looks on everyone’s face, "What? You didn’t think I’d leave without a little going away gift from them, do you?"

"What files did you take? Are you sure they are useful?" Wesley's face held a look mixed between doubt and delight.

"Everything, and one of them is bound to be helpful." Once again, Lindsey chuckled at the stunned looks. "Be right back."

As Lindsey raced to retrieve the disks, Cordelia started her computer while Angel sat down across from Wesley to help translate the prophecies. Gunn plopped himself down on the couch with an armful of books to search for more information on the blood ritual of Kaeirk.

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"This could take years!" Cordelia complained as she ejected the disk and inserted another.

"Sorry," Lindsey apologized as he scanned through the data on the screen before him. He was thankful that he had brought his laptop along, since there was only one computer at Angel Investigations.

"Not your fault, and stop being so guilt-driven, that’s Angel’s job," She smirked and opened another document.

"Funny," Angel glanced up from the pile of books and scrolls then headed back to work.

"See? He’s developing a sense of humor," Cordelia whispered and got a low chuckle from Lindsey. "How long have we been staring at the monitor anyway? It can't be good for my eyes." She rubbed her eyes tiredly.

"Let's see," Lindsey glanced at the clock and froze when he saw that an hour had gone by.

"I found something," Wesley waved his hand frantically, indicating them to gather around.

"What is it?"

"Right here," he pointed the one of the sentences in the prophecies of Aberjian, "it states that the exiled hellgod would be killed by one who was sent to assist the chosen one."

"Giles?" Angel said incredulously, "What about the portal?"

"It will not be closed until Buffy has given up her life." Lindsey told them, and indicated his laptop with a nod of his head, "Wolfram and Hart has a whole file on her and predictions of her future."

"Buffy..." The name escaped Angel’s lips before he could prevent it, and he couldn’t stop the pain and fear from seeping into his tone either.

"I’m sure the prophecies could be wrong, after all, you did chop off my hand." Lindsey comforted while fighting the urge to smooth the lines on Angel’s forehead, or kiss them away. He mentally kicked himself for thinking about it at a time like this, but he couldn’t help it.

"Yeah! Only you can change the future...or something like that." Cordelia added a little sheepishly. Recovering quickly, she continued, "Come on! Research, I’m sure we can find some ways to save the world without Buffy dying!"

As though woken from a deep sleep, the crew resumed their former position with a slow, sluggish look on their faces, as if they knew it was hopeless to prevent what was foretold.

The event with Lindsey proves nothing, since he wasn’t trying to follow the prophecies, rather, was working against it. Yet they remained silent, no one wanting to be the first to voice it aloud, afraid to hear it and fearing it would become true once they heard it.

So they carried on with their duties in a painful and heavy quietness, the only sound the shuffling of pages and the small, clicking of the keyboard.

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The ticking of the clock grew louder and louder as seconds passed. The alarm clock went off when two hours had passed couple minutes ago and no solution was found. Even if they did find something, it would be too late. Giles had called and informed them that they were leaving to stop Glory almost half-an-hour ago.

Angel’s pale face had gone to an unhealthy white while he spoke to the watcher. Giles had left his cell phone number in case if they came up with something helpful. The conversation ended when Buffy called for her watcher in the background.

The dial tone rang in Angel’s ears until he finally set the receiver down then switched on the answering machine to pick up immediately and turned down the volume. He stared at the piece of paper with the phone numbers on it for a few seconds before returning to his friends and dove back into the sea of books with a look of determination on his face, the others did the same.

Lindsey smiled encouragingly and squeezed Angel's cool hand as the vampire slid in next to him, but the gesture wasn’t returned since Angel was still partially in a daze of the news.

=======

"I don’t understand why we are doing this! They are already gone, there is no way we’ll get to Sunnydale in time and if we found a solution to this, how are we going to tell them?" Cordelia blurted out.

"Giles has a cell phone." Angel answered without lifting his head from the ancient pages; he kept his voice even and calm, even though he wasn’t sure if anyone would answer the phone during the fight.

"At least we’ll know we tried." Gunn added.

"I’ll get more disks," Lindsey said to no one in particular as he strolled upstairs.

"Angel." Wesley whispered.

"What?"

"How do we know this isn’t a setup? That he’s leading us to the wrong direction?" He pulled another book out of the pile.

"It isn’t a trap, what good will it be for him if the world ends?" Angel asked it as if it should be as obvious as one plus one equals two.

"I know that, but what if..."

"Stop with the what if, it won’t do us any good right now."

"But..."

Wesley was interrupted by a clamorous thud coming from the staircase, the clattering of disks and a low sound of pain.

"Lindsey!" Angel jumped at the first sound and raced the stairs.

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Lindsey had pulled the last case of disks from his traveling case and was ready to go back down to the lobby when a wave of dizziness washed over him. He leaned against the doorframe and the wall for support as he slowly moved toward the staircase. It wasn’t until he was halfway down the steps when he realized that he wasn’t going to make it.

The mild nausea had become severe ache and images flashed before his eyes like a slide show mixed with bright lights. His fingers slipped as he attempted to ease the pain by rubbing his forehead and temples. Lindsey groan as his headache intensified then he heard Angel’s voice.

=======

Angel was sure that his still heart skipped a beat as he took in the sight before him, Lindsey wobbly stood halfway down the stairs with his head in his hands. With another moan, Lindsey lost his balance and stumbled down the hardwood steps.

The vampire couldn’t do anything except to watch the scene unfold before him. His vampire strength and agility could have allowed him to catch the fallen lawyer in time, but every cell in his body was frozen, in fear.

Lindsey’s limp body rolled and a sickening pop came when his shoulder hit the floor at an odd angle as his fall came to a stop.

Before Angel could help him, Lindsey went into a seizure-like state.

Angel gathered the lawyer in his arms and mumble words of encouragement, like ‘hang on’ and ‘you’ll be fine’.

The light in Angel’s eyes dimmed when Lindsey suddenly stopped all movement at once, and his body lay lifelessly in his embrace.

"Lindsey?" Not getting a response, Angel tried again, raising his voice a bit, "Lindsey? Can you hear me?"

Silence was his answer.

"What happened?" Cordelia whispered to Wesley, confusion and worry filled her eyes.

"I don’t know, but..." He was cut off when a violent earthquake occurred.

"Don’t leave me, please don’t leave me. Please..." The last word was drawn out as a wail as Angel clenched Lindsey in his arms, "please..."

Gunn, Wesley and Cordelia could only stare at the two men at the bottom of the staircase in shock while gripping each other’s arms to keep their balance.

:: Part Eight ::